RIBBON CANDY, FA Johnny Woodward & Scott Cosgrove, May 1988

G Murphy

Trad climber
Oakland CA

Jun 17, 2010 - 12:17pm PT
Someone asked about more detail on Ribbon Candy. The Yosemite guidebook calls it IV 5.11c**. FA Woodward and Coz 1988. I did it with Chan Harrell in 1994 on a beautiful October day. First 5 pitches are 5.9-5.10 range with some bushes and stuff; nothing notable. Pitch 6 is all time. I actually wrote, "Best 5.11c pitch in the Valley" in my book. Perfect hands traversing left for a ways on a overhanging wall. Lots of golds and blues. The 7th pitch is stout and sporty. 5.11a open handed laybacking in a shallow flaring crack. Gear from the small stuff to a couplpe 4" and 5" pieces (I don't think we had 5" pieces at the time). I'd give the pitch the "r" rating.
Next pitches were strenuous or we were just getting tired. The last move is an OW out a short roofy flare.
Real old school trad Yosemite climbing.

I'll put in a plug for Direct North FAce of Sentinel while I'm at it.

Greg

That 11a pitch is probably way sandbag.

mynameismud

climber
backseat

Jan 2, 2014 - 08:02pm PT
I did Ribon Candy with Steve a few years back. The first few pitches are a bit dirty since they are low angle and the route does not get a lot of traffic. There were a fair amount of leaves on the slabs. It get's steeper higher up. The gear description says doubles through #5. We did not listen but it is accurate. For this I think Camalots might be better since the big Friends might be to wide. Do not know for sure since I do nt have any big Friends.

The 11d pitch is good and pumpy. The next pitch the 11a pitch I found to be the crux. There is some bouldery stuff down low then it is a shallow groove just deep enough to get a good chicken wing. A #4 through #5 camalot will kinda sit in it. The inner lobes the crack is almost to small the outer lobes are almost on the outside of the crack. There is one short section to wide for the #5 so I got outside the crack and lay backed for about 10 to 15 feet. Then there is a short face section to a pod for a rest. Just before the pod you can get a good piece a #2 LoweBall. You will climb above this for a bit. I forgot what it is getting out of the pod. then crack to a small pod with a bush, getting past the bush into the fist crack above was tenous. We had a 60 meter rope and I butt belayed on a dirt ramp.

Next pitch is a short OW to the top.

If the raps have not improved they suck. After topping out drop down over the other side off to the right a bit. There is a small Oak tree and you need to get the rope as low as possible in order to reach the two crappy 1/4" bolts. We did not and I had to hang up side down to reach the bolts. Someone told us to bring a bolt kit to replace/put in new anchors. We both wished we had.

I consider the 11a one of my best leads ever. Gear is not the best, you kinda gotta go for it. Maybe it is not as hard as I remember but it seemed burly. Oh, for the longest time there was a one word description in the Yosemite Guide book in the climbing shop. That word.

Burly.

It looks like Cosgrove might have posted up on it before he got deleted.